Football has long been a passion of mine, so I was delighted when Canbet approached Quirk with the opportunity to develop a football focused friendly betting Facebook application.

Well, today I’m proud to announce the release of Bet-Match. It’s come a long way from what we’d originally intended and, personally, I think that it presents its users with great value.

Bet-Match allows Facebook users to make football bets based on the outcomes of various matches and championships around the world by placing virtual credits and egos on the line. Bookmaker’s odds are provided courtesy of Canbet, but the betting parties are encouraged to set up their own odds.

Covering over ninety football competitions (ranging from the high profile English Premier League and Euro Championships through to the second tier leagues of Japan and Russia) Bet-Match also goes a step further than simply providing a betting facility.

With users able to select the competitions that they want to receive reminders of upcoming games for, and with the outcome of the various games provided by Canbet, Bet-Match has a number of benefits for its community.

The application will continue to evolve and we envision it becoming a central resource for not only fans of football, but of many other sports as well.

Over and above the football betting facility, Bet-Match also allows users to create friendly social bets where you can bet on virtually anything for the stakes that you agree upon. Challenge your varsity mate to see if he has the guts to streak through the girls’ dorm, or bet your boss that you that you can take him down in 6 rounds of brutal Nintendo Wii boxing with the loser paying for lunch - the social bets are designed to add a fun dynamic that anybody (not just sports lovers) can use.

When Facebook first opened its platform to third-party developers I expressed some concern as to how this would affect the social network overall, and surely enough we’ve seen it be inundated by a host of applications. Vampires versus Werewolves, Superpoke and a host of similar applications all hit it big with their novelty factor, but a lack of substance and no real benefits for their users have seen their user-bases dwindle thanks to what has been termed ‘app-fatigue’.

While these applications arguably ended up damaging Facebook’s brand, with users developing a knee-jerk response of ignoring any invitation to add an app (most of us are sick of receiving 20 invitations a day to see which manga character we are, to determine our IQ or what type of underwear we most closely resemble), they do end up contrasting starkly with the truly useful applications.

Facebook’s greatest strength lies in its ability to integrate various areas of a person’s life into one central resource. Applications that can tap into this key attribute will not only ensure their own success, but will give their users benefits and conveniences well beyond the shallow novelty that has become synonymous with many applications.

I encourage you to add Bet-Match, give it a bash and send your feedback through to us. As I’ve said, we expect it to evolve substantially (not only with regards to the football betting, but also with its social bets and even into new sports) so we would like to extend an invitation to you to please be a part of this evolution.

Your feedback and suggestions are more than welcome and with the Euro Championships currently underway, I challenge anyone to bet against Portugal running away with the tournament.